The latest news circling the internet and all of social media and every broadcast news station is the statement made by Dolores Huerta about her sexual assault. I will not include the name of her assailant, because I refuse to give this monster any more light. He doesn’t deserve it.

I had a visceral reaction while reading her statement. I cried and felt a deep ache in my soul. I felt the deep sorrow of holding secrets so tightly and lying about life and its joys because telling the truth would cause destruction, pain, and, more horrifically, being called a liar. I thought of the many times she stood by her assailant for the cause, knowing that if she spoke up, she would jeopardize the “good” work being done to help hundreds who were counting on her.

She carried the burden of her womanness. She carried the weight of the future. She carried life in her womb, choosing not to abort, but to give these babies an opportunity to live life with “others,” almost as if to erase their identity or how they came to be.

I felt the suffocating weight of not being seen. I felt the pressure grip my chest of not being believed. She kept silent for over 60 years! What a burden to carry!

This is what being dispensable looks like.

But she refused to be that. She wanted her name to live forever. She wanted her labor to bear witness, to produce fruit. She chose to stand up for others while pushing her own pain aside. She decided to handle her burden the only way she knew how: in secret.

This is more than a secret. This is a harrowing declaration of ENOUGH! Our cultural norms have placed us in a universe where men are forever superior, dominant, intelligent, and in charge.

We have created these monsters! We have allowed this narrative to live on. We have believed it, voted for it, and stand with it.

I will never question her why. I understand it. I walked it.

What you have to ask yourself is, when do we stop victimizing the victims? When do we stop applauding the predator? When do we stop protecting the monster that lives among us? When do we hold all of them accountable?

When is enough, enough?

I know I will sit with this sorrow for a bit. I know too many women who have lived, walked, and survived this; to them I say, I see you.

But for now, I will sit in silence.

If you, or someone you know, has been a victim of sexual assault, domestic abuse, or emotional abuse, tell someone.

Do not let the predator get away with it! We must STOP this EVIL.